Blood is Thicker
by Glorytommy
Summary: When Lorelei Martha Wayne discovers the truth about her birth... she finds herself caught between a rock and a hard place... or perhaps, more accurately, a Joker and a Bat.
1. Chapter 1

**Unfit and Dangerous**

Harley was well aware that she had put herself through many things in this very messed up piece of her timeline. She had the scars both physical and mental to prove it too… but she treasured every one of them. In fact, she was sure there was a mountain of notes made by her various shrinks on both subjects, all of them unable to understand how she could go from being a promising up and coming psychologist to a lovesick criminal solely devoted to one, very deranged, man.

She had put herself through a lot after falling in love with the Joker.

 _Her Joker._

Never had she experienced anything quite like him. Before it all, she had lived a boring life in retrospect. Just a good girl with a bright future ahead of her in the field of psychoanalysis hoping for enough degrees and shining recommendations on the wall to make daddy proud and fuel her own self-indulgent ego.

Her life had been good then, or at least that was what everyone kept telling her. And sometimes, occasionally, she let herself believe them... just for fun.

But if she were truly honest with herself, Harley looked back on her time before the Joker with boredom. For her, it had been a mundane existence and the only reason she had lived it was to keep a promise to a dead man whose wife had left long before her daughter could even speak the word "mama".

She had realized a long time ago that it had been fate that had attracted her to the asylum and in turn to meet Joker. Each of their sessions had painted her dull world in brilliant colors. The pleasure and pain he gave to her gradually became an addiction she found she could not live without. Every day she saw his face brought her unbridled joy, and every day she couldn't left her depressed and lethargic.

For her, it wasn't hard to care for him and the more sides she saw of him the more in love she couldn't help but fall. There was never a dull day by his side and that in itself was one of the many reasons she kept coming back. He was a dangerous package but he was a complete one and he was all hers.

She felt that she could never love anyone as much as she loved him, that she would have never been able to come close to loving anyone else…

But then she saw the shocked and horrified face of one of the asylum's doctors after a routine check up, and she'd felt her whole world change.

She would be having a baby. She'd be a mommy.

Funny thing was. The thought had never crossed her mind, and she wasn't all that into the thought of having kids like all the other broads in love seemed to be… but it still brought tears to her eyes when she'd first heard the news.

After all, it was _Joker's baby._

The little thing growing inside of her was part her and part him, and as far as she was concerned it couldn't be anything more than beautiful.

The problem was, she knew she wouldn't be able to keep it. She was a criminal locked in an insane asylum, which practically screamed unfit mother in the eyes of the law. And if she were honest, Arkham was no place to raise a kid anyway. -Didn't mean the thought of letting the little tike go hurt any less, though.

But as the kid grew inside of her, Harley held off the inevitable by imagining a life where she and Joker got to be parents _AND_ rule the criminal underground like the king and queen she knew they were meant to be.

…. What a life that would be.

Sometimes she let herself have a little bit of hope. She let herself believe that maybe there was a chance Joker would break them out before she gave birth. Then she'd be able to tell him the good news. She knew he wasn't what most people would want to see as the father of their child, but she was convinced he'd be a good one. Not conventional in any sense, of course, but when had she ever wanted anything in her life conventional?

It wasn't until the day her water broke that the full weight of Harley's situation landed on her and the panic set in.

With tears in her eyes, she struggled against two lug-sized orderlies as they strapped her down to a cold steel table. "No, no!" she pleaded, hyperventilating as she wished and hoped that maybe just maybe Joker would come and save her before they took their child away.

She could imagine him vividly: purple coat fluttering and a wide grin on his face as he busted in through the metal doors, spraying the room with lead before stealing her away.

…. But no matter how long she stared at those double doors, he didn't come, and so she was made to _push_.

Waves of pain hit her as the baby inched out of her.

Her baby.

She screamed through gritted teeth, willing and wishing for the child to stay inside of her just a bit longer. Stay inside where they couldn't take it away. Just stay.

" _Push,"_ she heard the doctor tell her, and even though she didn't want to the action came naturally.

 _Push._

Tears started to stream down Harley's cheeks as she did what was instructed. She couldn't stop the baby from coming… and to be honest part of her didn't want to. If it was only for a moment, she wanted to hold her baby in her arms. She wanted to lay eyes on the little person who'd occupied her womb for the last nine months.

 _Push._

One last scream from Harley and a young, watery cry broke through, young healthy lungs filling with air as the baby's vocal cords got its first uses.

The new mother watched through a dazed vision as the small thing was wrapped in a pink blanket, small tufts of blonde poking out from atop her round pink head.

"It's a girl," the doctor announced, and Harley found herself releasing a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding.

A girl. A baby girl.

 _Her baby girl._

Sweat dripping down her brow, Harley smiled through tears, unable to hold back this overwhelming happiness that was beginning to flower within her. Ignoring the restraints cutting into her wrists, she sat up slightly and strained her neck to try and get a glimpse of her baby's face.

"Can I hold her?" the blonde questioned, her voice sounding so soft and genuine that it even caught herself off guard.

The nurse holding her daughter stared at her both startled and hesitant before turning to the higher authority in the room. The doctor shook his head solemnly, refusing to speak a word as he motioned for the nurse to give him the baby.

Harley felt her heart drop into her stomach at the gesture, and despite being in pain she sat up as fully and abruptly as possible. "Just- Please, just for a little while. Please just let me hold her before you take her away."

The nurse and doctor ignored her words and moved to leave as the orderlies stepped toward her growing hysteria.

Harley began to feel as if the world was falling from beneath her. She had known they would take her daughter… but she hadn't realized that they would rob her of a chance to at least hold the baby in her arms. "Wait! Please! Let me hold her!" She yanked against her restraints as she watched the doctor and nurse continue to exit the room without another look in her direction.

"PLEASE!" She screamed as the door opened, struggling against the rough hands of an orderly as he tried to get her to lay back down. " _PLEASE!"_

No one in the room gave her any sympathy. She may have been a new mother who'd just given birth, but she was also a criminal. They had often called her unstable and delusional, and as someone who once worked in this very place, she should have known better than to get her hopes up and believe that they would trust her enough to allow her to hold her own daughter.

In their eyes, she was unfit and dangerous.

She had understood that much… She had prepared herself for that much… but that baby… her and joker's baby…. Did she not still have a right to hold her? To name her at the very least?

Did the hours she had just spent in labor mean nothing? Did the months she had to carry the girl around inside her mean nothing?

Harley had cooperated more than willingly to make sure that her baby was born healthily. From the moment she had found out about the baby's existence she had been the picture of a perfect inmate. She had eaten what they'd told her to eat and taken anything they had prescribed. She had made an active effort to be good for her child's sake.

All that she was asking for in return as one simple thing.

"JUST LET ME HOLD HER!" she pleaded to a closed door, the doctor and nurse having already disappeared from sight.

Hot tears flooded her vision as the restraints around her wrists drew blood. She flailed against the steel slab with all the frustration and anger that came from forcefully losing a child, the pain of labor feeling like nothing compared to the pain in her heart at that moment.

Eventually, she was forced down, a raw cry escaping her lips as she tried to push against the orderlies to no avail. She sobbed, her fists clenching as she refused to give up. If she didn't get to touch her child now, she knew that she would never get another chance again.

She tried to ask again, the words hard to form between her panicked breaths, "P-please... just let me... hold… my daughter-"

The sharp prick of a syringe digging into her neck cut cut Harley off, her mind fogging as a strong sedative entered her system, turning her world black.


	2. Chapter 2

**Two Days**

James Gordon stood solemnly by the viewing window of the unused asylum nursery, if one could even still call it that.

The old wallpaper had been picked and peeled at, the soft design faded in the places where it had been rubbed against multiple time. He had been assured they had taken the time to clean it out "to the best of their ability", but boxes of old linens and other odds and ends were visibly stacked haphazardly in one corner. The only light in the room flickered occasionally, threatening to go out at a moment's notice, and the air surrounding it was stale.

Until recently the room had been used as a storage closet. When the asylum had been reopened, the nursery was one of the few rooms that had remained relatively untouched. No one had thought there would be a need to use it for its once intended purpose, so money had gone elsewhere. Modern times made it possible to transfer patients to the nearby hospital to give birth, and children were not allowed to enter the asylum under any circumstance.

Until three days ago, Arkham hadn't seen a childbirth behind its walls for decades… and yet… inside that room, the form of a three-month-old infant girl slept quietly inside of alone bassinet. She slept peacefully, blissfully unaware of the dilemma that her existence caused. There was nothing more innocent than the sight of a sleeping baby. Nothing purer. Just the sight of the kid lying there was enough to break the man's heart… and if he had anything to say about it there was no way in hell she'd still be lying there.

The problem, however, happened to be with who the baby's parents were.

And more specifically, her father.

While not many people knew of the baby's existence, those that did were fearful of lifting a finger. Other than a nurse who checked on her every hour, no one else had entered the room since the baby's birth. It was a delicate situation, of course, but the poor thing was being treated as if she had the plague.

Maybe it was the fact that in a few more months he'd have a baby of his own coming into the world, but the sight of her alone in that room disturbed him. The baby may have been the spawn of two of the worst people in Gotham, but god dammit she was still a child. It was a bit of a stretch to expect any of the staff from Arkham of all places to show a bit of compassion, considering they dealt with the criminally insane, but Jim couldn't stop the feeling that ate at him as he looked through that window.

"It can't be very sanitary in there," came the concerned voice of Alfred Pennyworth as two sets of footstep came to stop behind him.

Turning only slightly, Jim let his eyes rest on both the butler and his employer, Bruce Wayne. Both of them looked tired, and truly he didn't blame them. It _was_ just a little bit after midnight. "Probably not," he sighed, turning back to look at the child.

As painful as it was to admit, finding out what to do wasn't going to be easy. There had to be no record of her birth… nothing that could link her back to Harley or The Joker. And even then that wasn't good enough. The corruption in Gotham City ran deep, and he knew that if anyone outside of a select few found out that Harley had given birth to Joker's baby there would be a high price for the kid.

"What's a child doing in Arkham?" Bruce asked next, coming up beside Gordon with a deep frown carving into his features. In the harsh fluorescent lighting, he almost looked like his father.

"That's… why I called you here…" Jim admitted, taking off his glasses to clean them.

It may have seemed strange calling the playboy billionaire to such a confidential place and at such a late hour… but he had his reasons. There were few people that James found himself being able to trust completely within Gotham, and Bruce, despite his flaws, happened to be one of them. They happened to go way back, after all.

"That baby…" the commissioner paused, sliding his glasses back on, "Harley Quinn gave birth to her a few days ago."

Unsurprisingly, shock crossed Bruce's face for a moment and then his brows furrowed. "So what you're saying is…"

"Harley and Joker had a baby," he nodded, "No one was allowed to know about it until now… not even me," he admitted, slight annoyance in his tone at the person who'd made that decision.

There was a pause as this sunk in, the gears in the rich young man's head turning. He went from shock to confusion as he turned to Gordon, unable to piece together where the older man was going with this. "But what does this have to do with me?"

"As you can imagine, her situation is… complicated," he told him, placing his hands into his pocket. "As it stands, Joker has no clue she exists. He and Harley have been kept away as far from each other as possible. So we have that going for us… but…"

"But?"

"Even if Joker doesn't find out about her... Joker has enemies, both in the criminal underworld and the general public. There are people who want revenge… So, she's a target." Gordon paused to steady the anxiety in his voice at the thought, before continuing, "Putting her through the system is risky… and to be honest it's not ideal. It'd be too easy to find her if word gets out-"

"That won't happen," Bruce stressed a bit too confidently. He had helped fund and design a better wing in the asylum for high profile criminals like the Joker… but there was still a risk of escape. Arkham wasn't known for being airtight, it wasn't like there hadn't been leaks before. The system was still new, so there were still kinks that needed to be ironed out.

"We both know he's done it before, and _if_ it happens… and he finds out…. We can't leave a paper trail. No one else can know that baby is his or that she came from out of this place, and those that have helped up until now can't know where she's going." There was a reason he'd had the two of them come in from the back. Discretion was everything.

Bruce's eyes narrowed slightly. He was getting a bit impatient, likely because he was starting to see where Gordon was taking this. "You still haven't answered my question."

"She needs somewhere safe… Somewhere no one would think to look..." Jim explained, holding his stare. The look in his eye telling the young man that he was assuming correctly.

The billionaire's face turned incredulous. "You can't be suggesting-"

"You're the only one I can trust on this-"

"I know little to nothing about raising a _child_."

The older man was very much aware of that fact. Bruce was young, and he had a reputation… but he was also a Wayne and his father's son. Gordon knew that he was more mature than he let others believe. The success of his company proved that. That said, if he had any other choice he wouldn't have involved him in the first place. The seclusion of the manor was ideally perfect to hold the child until they considered her situation properly.

"I wouldn't be asking this if it wasn't my only option," he stressed. It was clear in his voice that this was his last resort. Hell, Gordon would have taken the girl under his own wing if he could… but with a baby already on the way, it would look too strange and be too obvious. Not to mention his wife already had a lot on her plate, and it wasn't as if he could look after her on his own. "It wouldn't be permanent. She just can't stay _here._ "

The young man shook his head. "I have a company to run, I cannot care for-"

" _Wait_ , Bruce. Please. Look at her," Jim pressed with a conviction that made him pause. The look in the commissioner's eyes spoke about how desperate he was. "You are the only safe option she's got right now, kid. Until we set something up for her she's got nowhere secure to go." Knowing the weight of what he was asking, he calmed himself with a deep sigh and ran a hand through his hair. He stepped closer and lowered his voice. "Just- Just sleep on it… _please_."

Gordon didn't beg often, but if anyone was worth it the small child sleeping in the room before them was. Despite who she came from, she was an innocent. Stripped of her mother, she was all alone. If he didn't, who would?

That said, Jim knew it was not a decision that Bruce could make at a moment's notice, and so he moved to leave for the night. Pausing at the door, he turned back to glance at the boy he'd personally watch become a man. "I need an answer in two days."

Then he was gone, and a stillness filled the void in his absence, and the two men were left to stare at the child in heavy contemplation. Alfred stepped forward to stand beside his employer but did not speak, and they merely occupied the space in silence.

"You were awful quiet during that conversation…" Bruce finally broke, his expression giving nothing away as he continued to look at the sleeping baby.

His butler hummed, also keeping his eyes forward. "The decision isn't mine to make."

At that, the billionaire couldn't help but raise a brow, giving his guardian a side glance. "When has that ever stopped you before?"

"Touché."

* * *

 **A/N:** This is a long one so bare with me!

I want to start off by saying that I love all the responses I've gotten, including the critics. I am one of the rare few that actually enjoys constructive criticism, regardless if I agree with it or not. I find that sometimes it can bring to light something I haven't thought of before, or at the very least let me see how certain aspects of a story resonate with certain people. I actually wanted to talk a bit about some of them, as I see that a few people are echoing similar things. It seems like a lot of you are addressing some concerns with the future romance of this story… and I suppose it's only right that I express a few things for you all so that you'll see a bit of my thinking in this. Lorelei, in the future, will fall in love with Dick. That is something I decided early on when first thinking about her life's story… That said, "Blood is Thicker" does not focus centrally on a romance between my OC and Dick. Hence why I didn't label this story a romance. It merely contains one. It is not something I plan to rush in the slightest… as I feel that for this particular story and how I envision their relationship it is most certainly something that burns slowly. First and foremost this is Lorelei's story, and with it we will see her form relationships with many people in her life. Platonic… Romantic… Antagonistic… etc. I haven't actually read many fics in this particular category so I'm not sure what a "cliche" version of a Joker/Harley child is… but I think I can image it somewhat. I don't think a story can avoid a few cliches, but I do understand the concern. I suppose all I can say is that I intend to write what comes to me and hope you enjoy reading it as must as I enjoyed writing it. I also am fully aware that a young Bruce pre-Dick is more unwilling and perhaps even unfit to take in a baby girl… but that is something that I feel is part of the appeal to me. I enjoy putting characters in situations that make them uncomfortable or pose a challenge. And I suppose I should also mention that while I do take care to research characters and timelines and the like… I am not an expert nor do I care to be. This story is set in the realm of Young Justice but I may pull from some ideas in DC lore (comic, cartoon, and movie-verses) and just out of my own mind as well. The beautiful thing about writing a fanfiction is that I can mold and reshape or add in things because it is a story that I have chosen to write for my own enjoyment. It won't be perfect, but hopefully, it will entertain a few of you nonetheless. Thank you all for reading it and I hope you continue to do so in the future!


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